PlayStation and Santa Monica Studio’s critically acclaimed God of War (2018) has now sold more than 23 million copies to date, according to the latest Sony earnings report.

The new sales figure is up from the 19.5 million copies sold as of October 2021, with the increase likely owed in part to the PC version of God of War being released earlier this year, that saw Sony's biggest launch on the platform to date.

God of War: Ragnarok's imminent release may be another reason for the boost in sales, and Sony is expecting the sequel to perform just as well as its predecessor.

"The previous God of War game released in 2018 was one of the biggest titles ever released exclusively for PlayStation, selling 23 million units cumulative to date," read the earnings report. "We expect similar performance from this new title as well."

The sequel will see the continuation of Kratos and his son Atreus's emotionally charged journey of self discovery as they venture through the lore steeped realms of Norse mythology while battling gods and monsters alike.

For a full breakdown of why we loved God of War, be sure to check out IGN’s review of the game, in which we said the Norse adventure was a masterpiece. In preparation of Ragnarok's launch on November 9, you can also watch IGN's spoiler-free Q&A to get fully up to date with the highly anticipated sequel.

Anthony Wood is a freelance science writer for IGN

James Gunn has long been one of the most famous names in superhero filmmaking, his influence felt across both the Marvel and DC cinematic universes. But for Henry Cavill at least, who is currently enjoying a bit of a moment in the DCEU himself, Gunn apparently remains a bit of an unknown quantity.

On hand to promote Enola Holmes 2, which releases on Netflix this week, Cavill reacted to the news that Gunn would be taking over DC Studios alongside Peter Safran.

"I have not met James yet," Cavill admitted in an interview with IGN. "I'm looking very forward to meeting him. He's clearly a very, very talented man, and I cannot wait to sit down and have long, long conversations with him. I'm very excited about him being there and very excited about any future opportunities we can work together."

Gunn's ascension parallels Cavill's own return to the DCEU. In interviews following the release of Black Adam, in which Dwayne Johnson talked at length about the possibility of a Black Adam vs. Superman bout, Cavill spoke of playing a "joyful Superman."

What Cavill means by a "joyful Superman"

Asked to elaborate, Cavill talked about how Superman "means so much for so many people," which can in turn relate to one's own experience.

"What really gets me about Superman is that he represents the best of the human soul, the greatest of the human soul. It's not just his powers. It's his heart. It's his heart that makes him so special. And even when he's going through stuff, he's still giving to others. He's still protecting others. He's the one who will always reach out and always give. And in that is so much wonder and power. And it's such, as I say, a joyful thing that it's not a mournful weight," Cavill says.

"It is something that is a gift. To be giving is a gift because it makes people feel a certain way, and it also makes them want to be giving in return to other people. There's just something so magnificent about that. And, of course, then, that's a very broad-stroke piece. But once you get into the nitty-gritty details of that, and once you start applying that storytelling and to all the wonderful, exciting villains that he may come across, then you have a world adventure and a world where an audience leaves the cinema feeling fantastic."

Cavill is currently at the center of several Superman rumors, including reports that Warner Bros. Discovery is working on a Man of Steel 2. They coincide with word that Cavill will not be reprising his role as Geralt in Netflix's Witcher series.

One way or another, Cavill is commanding more of the spotlight than ever, meaning that when he does have his inevitable conversation with Gunn, it will be very interesting indeed. For now, his focus is on Enola Holmes 2, which releases November 4.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

Resident Evil's survival horror and Ghost of Tsushima's open world action couldn't seem further apart on paper, but the worldwide appeal of both games makes them weirdly similar according to a former Capcom producer.

Speaking to IGN, Hiroyuki Kobayashi said the U.S.-based Sucker Punch's creation of a globally appealing Japanese game like Ghost of Tsushima is very similar to how he and his colleagues at Capcom created the very American seeming Resident Evil franchise.

"As a game about Japan made by non-Japanese developers, Ghost of Tsushima kind of reminded me how we [at Capcom] as Japanese developers made a horror game set in the United States with Resident Evil back in the day," he said. "At the time, it might have been surprising for people that it was made by Japanese developers."

Creating an authentic experience from a culture outside your own isn't an easy task, however, but Kobayashi said the effort can lead to great success. "I think this shows that no matter what country or culture you make your game about, as long as you seriously study the topic and put your heart into it there’s always a chance," he said.

This is something he'll take into his next game, as Kobayashi recently left Capcom to join Chinese mobile game developer and tech firm NetEase Games. "For our first game we’re going for something that more easily appeals to a worldwide audience," he said, commenting that the series he's most known for, Sengoku Basara, is only very well known in Japan.

Kobayashi started at Capcom in 1995 and was a programmer on the first two Resident Evil games, a planner for the original Dino Crisis, and producer on the original Devil May Cry. He was also a producer on Resident Evil Remake, Resident Evil 4, Killer 7, and Dragon's Dogma among other things, and most recently was executive producer on Mega Man 11.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

The number of PlayStation Plus subscribers has fallen by almost two million since Sony launched its revamped subscription service in June.

According to the company’s latest financial report, Sony’s multi-tiered PlayStation Plus subscription service has dropped from 47.3 million at the end of June to 45.4 million in the three months leading up to September 30 - a decrease of 4%.

Sony highlighted that the ratio of gamers subscribed to the service is significantly higher on the PS5 than it is for the previous generation PS4 console. In response, Sony leadership plans to accelerate the adoption of PS5 hardware to “recover this user engagement going forward”.

The number of active users on the PlayStation Network also dropped by one million in the latest quarter to 102 million players.

Though its numbers dropped on the digital side, Sony still had a strong showing when it comes to PlayStation 5 hardware. The company announced it has now sold more than 25 million units, and was able to produce roughly 6.5 million new PS5s in the three months leading up to September 30

Sony announced the revamp of its PlayStation Plus service in March as a subscription somewhat akin to Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass, but didn't complete the rollout until June when the three new tiers arrived in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

Though the Essential tier is essentially the same as the original version of PlayStation Plus - allowing users to play online and granting monthly games at no extra cost - the Extra and Premium tiers added brand new content.

Both grant users access to a catalogue of games from the PlayStation 4 and 5 including Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Dragon Quest 11, and Red Dead Redemption 2, while the Premium tier also comes with a Classic Catalogue that includes games from the original PlayStation through to the PS3.

Anthony Wood is a freelance science writer for IGN.

Shazam 2 director David F. Sandberg has shared a behind-the-scenes photo to celebrate crossing the finish line on the upcoming DC sequel.

Sandberg declared Shazam! Fury of the Gods is officially in the can by sharing a sneak peek of Zachary Levi's titular character in action. "Finished! Now for a little time off," the filmmaker tweeted alongside an image of Billy Batson suited up as his super-powered alter-ego, bearing a magical staff in the middle of a stadium illuminated by a lightning bolt.

Finished! Now for a little time off. #ShazamMovie March 17 pic.twitter.com/ocK9kYXTzD

— David F. Sandberg (@ponysmasher) October 31, 2022

The movie will see the Shazam family (established at the end of the first film) balancing their normal lives with being superheroes before two goddesses – Helen Mirren's Hespera and Lucy Liu's Kalypso – visit the world and stir up some trouble. As such, Shazam 2 is expected to feature more "adult stakes and adult issues" than the kid-friendly original.

Fans will have to wait a little while longer to see how it all plays out in the Shazam sequel, as Warner Bros. Discovery recently pushed back the movie's release date, shifting it from its former December spot to March 17, 2023. Fury of the Gods will therefore arrive several months after spin-off Black Adam, which debuted on the big screen in October.

Despite being comic book nemeses, it doesn't look like Shazam and Black Adam will be crossing paths any time soon. Sandberg revealed earlier this year that there hadn't been any conversations about pitting Zachary Levi's Shazam against Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam, but the latter might end up having his fists full with the return of Henry Cavill's Superman.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

Sony has shipped more than 25 million PlayStation 5 consoles to date as the company has significantly stepped up production.

Revealed during its latest earnings results, Sony sold a further 3.3 million PS5s in the three month period leading up to September 30, equalling the amount it shifted during the same period in 2021.

Sony has therefore sold around 5.7 million PS5s since the beginning of this financial year (April 2022), leaving the company in somewhat of an uphill battle if it's to reach its target of selling 18 million consoles by March 2023.

According to Sony’s executive deputy president and CFO Hiroki Totoki, however, the 18 million target is still achievable as Sony has exceeded its own expectations by fabricating 6.5 million PS5s during the Q2 period alone.

"We recognize that demand from customers for the PS5 continues to be strong as the actual sales situation at retail stores in the U.S. is such that, in September, it took an average of 17.5 hours to sell out of 100 thousand units after their arrival," Sony's earnings presentation reads.

"To meet this strong demand, we will do our utmost to bring forward supply into the year-end holiday selling season and aim to exceed our financial year 2022 forecast of 18 million units."

The crippling semiconductor chip shortage seriously hamstrung the creation of new PS5 consoles but this didn't stop the PS5 from surpassing 20 million units sold as of June, at which point Sony executive Veronica Rogers announced that the company was "planning on a significant ramp-up in PS5 production this year".

Totoki also noted that the PS5 price increase hadn’t significantly dampened demand for the console, but that this would be monitored moving forward. During this time, PlayStation hardware sales amounted to ¥179.2 billion (around $1.2 billion), up from ¥160.6 billion (around $1.09 billion) from Q2 2021.

On the software side of things PlayStation users bought a total of 62.5 million games across all platforms, 63% of which were digital downloads and 6.7 million of which were first party titles. The number of games sold is down significantly from Q2 2021, yet amounted to a revenue of around ¥370 billion (around $2.5 billion) - up from the ¥343 billion (around $2.3 million) from Q2 2021.

It was also revealed that God of War (2018) has now sold 23 million copies to date over all platforms, with Sony saying that it expects the sequel, God of War Ragnarok to do similarly well.

Overall sales for the gaming division were up 12% to ¥720.7 billion (around $4.9 billion) over the same period in 2021, but the operating income - which is the company’s profit once costs and expenses are taken into account - slumped significantly from ¥82.7 billion (around $562 million) in Q2 2021 to ¥42.1 billion ($286 million) in Q2 2022.

This reduction has been attributed to a range of factors including an increase in the cost of game development and decreases in sales from non-first party games relative to previous years. The figures also take into account money spent on acquisitions including Bungie, which was bought by Sony back in July for $3.7 billion.

Anthony Wood is a freelance science writer for IGN.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever gives Namor the Sub-Mariner two different pronunciations of his name, but for a very specific reason.

During an interview with Phase Zero, producer Nate Moore revealed it’s all to do with the character’s heritage. “There is certainly a way that a Spanish speaker, or even a Mayan speaker, would say Nämor, versus a way that an English speaker, or somebody who is a little more Western in slant, might say Nāmor,” he explained.

"We thought that was just interesting. I mean, it's a reality that people face, and it felt more genuine than having everybody pronounce it correctly, to be quite honest.”

Namor makes his MCU debut in Wakanda Forever played by Mexican-born actor Tenoch Huerta. Instead of hailing from Atlantis like the comic books, however, the classic Marvel superhero will instead be the ruler of Talocan – an underwater city inspired by Aztec and Mayan culture. Given the actor’s heritage, this change makes a lot of sense, and so does the mispronunciation of his name.

“Nämor obviously was given that name by someone in the film,” said Moore. “So, it's not even something that is from him.”

Essentially, it sounds as though “Nāmor” is the way it should be pronounced, with other characters instead mispronouncing it as “Nämor”. Still, if you want to know exactly how to pronounce Namor, you better take it from the man himself.

He made a pretty serious entrance in the recent Wakanda Forever trailer that doesn't appear to go well for the film's heroes. Often described as Marvel’s “first mutant” in the comic books, it’s fitting that Namor is likely one of the very first mutants to appear in the MCU.

We've also seen Patrick Stewart recently reprised his role as Professor X in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, while Ms. Marvel also teased the prospect of mutants.

Want to read more about Black Panther 2? Check out Huerta’s admission that he couldn’t swim before Wakanda Forever and find out why Namor is a villain in the upcoming sequel.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Peacock has announced a straight-to-series order for a Friday the 13th prequel, Crystal Lake, with Hannibal creator Bryan Fuller at the helm.

In the reveal from Peacock, Fuller is listed as the writer, showrunner, and executive producer of the new Friday the 13th series. For now, more details on the prequel are slim, but Fuller is accompanied by executive producers A24, Marc Toberoff, Victor Miller, and Rob Barsamian.

“Friday the 13th is one of the most iconic horror franchises in movie history and we were dying to revisit this story with our upcoming drama series Crystal Lake,” said Susan Rovner, Chairman, Entertainment Content, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming. “We can’t wait to get to work with Bryan Fuller, a gifted, visionary creator who I’ve had the pleasure of being a longtime friend and collaborator, along with our incredible partners at A24, in this updated version for Peacock that will thrill long-standing fans of the franchise.”

Friday the 13th isn't the first classic series Fuller has worked on, with writing credits on Star Trek and Carrie. Most notably, Fuller was also the NBC Hannibal series developer, writer, and executive producer. IGN praised all three seasons, and called its finale "a terrific culmination to the deliciously complicated Hannibal/Will dynamic."

“I discovered Friday the 13th in the pages of Famous Monsters magazine when I was 10 years old and I have been thinking about this story ever since," said Fuller. "When it comes to horror, A24 raises the bar and pushes the envelope and I’m thrilled to be exploring the camp grounds of Crystal Lake under their banner. And Susan Rovner is simply the best at what she does. It’s a pleasure and an honor to be working with her again."

It's been a while since the iconic slasher saw even a film entry, with the last movie, simply titled Friday the 13th, released back in 2009. Since then, Jason has kept up in playable appearances, like in Friday the 13th: The Game. The asymmetrical horror game dropped its dedicated server support years ago, but you can still celebrate the scary season with peer-to-peer matches.

As for more information on the state of streaming, be sure to also check out IGN's coverage on Peacock.

Andrea Shearon is a freelance news writer at IGN covering games and entertainment. Find her on Twitter (@Maajora) chatting about FFXIV and other RPGs.

Marvel has seemingly found its Wonder Man.

Deadline reports Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is in talks to play Simon Williams/Wonder Man in the upcoming Disney+ series.

DC fans will recognize Abdul-Mateen II as Black Manta from the Aquaman films, and as Cal Abar in HBO's Watchmen. The actor made headlines last month for calling his role on Aquaman "clown work", saying he likes to balance comic book appearances with more serious films. The actor has also appeared in The Trial of the Chicago 7 and as Morpheus in The Matrix Resurrections.

Wonder Man was created in the 1980s and is a key member of the West Coast Avengers. His ties to Wanda and Vision make him an interesting character to introduce, especially with the Vision Quest spinoff in the works.

Abdul-Mateen II will join Ben Kingsley in Wonder Man, who will reprise his role as struggling actor/faux-Mandarin Trevor Slattery. Reports claim that Kingsley's character "will play a major role" in Wonder Man, which is set to have a comedic tone.

Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton will serve as executive producer for the upcoming Wonder Man series on Disney+, with Andrew Guest on board as head writer. Cretton is a big part of the MCU's future plans, as the filmmaker will also direct Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and a Shang-Chi sequel.

We don't yet know when Wonder Man will hit Disney+. For now, MCU fans are looking forward to November's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which just got its first trailer.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Apple TV+ has revealed a handful of stars joining the cast of Severance Season 2, including Game of Thrones' Gwendoline Christie, Bob Balaban, and more.

In addition to returning cast members like Adam Scott, Patricia Arquette, John Turturro, and others, Severance is adding eight new actors into the mix.

The new cast additions are listed below:

• Bob Balaban (The Chair, The Politician, The French Dispatch, Isle of Dogs)
• Robby Benson (Beauty and The Beast, One To One)
• Stefano Carannante (Mirabilia)
• Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones, The Sandman, Wednesday)
• John Noble (Fringe, Elementary, The Lord of the Rings films)
• Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (The Tourist, Trapped, The Missing)
• Alia Shawkat (Search Party, Being the Ricardos, The Old Man)
• Merritt Wever (Godless, Unbelievable, Nurse Jackie)

Director Ben Stiller announced that they are back on set for Severance Season 2, with Apple TV+ also sharing a first look at star Adam Scott from the set. Stiller joked, "Though we don't know how long we've been gone or who we are outside, we are told people enjoy the show and we couldn't be happier. Praise Kier!”

Severance follows Scott's Mark Scout as he leads a team at Lumon Industries, where employees have undergone a "severance procedure" that separates their work and personal lives. Severance is helmed by creator and writer Dan Erickson and director and executive producer Ben Stiller, and the show is produced by Fifth Season.

In our review of Season 1's premiere, we said "the excellent cast, eerie visuals, and offputting score make every moment of the first two episodes feel worth the ride."

For more on Severance, read why the creator stopped reading Reddit theories about the show, or get ready for Season 2 with IGN's Severance ending explained.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.